Bishop threatens journalists with sentencing for “offending believers” when they write article about his SUV

Update. In an interview with the radio station Ekho Moskvy, Archdiocese Secretary Father Alexander later denied that Bishop Nektary ever contacted the newspaper Orloveskie Novosti.

Bishop Nektary allegedly threatened to bring journalists to criminal liability under an article on offending religious believers when the latter published articles about his SUV Land Cruiser V8.

The 43-year-old priest sent a letter to the editorial office of the newspaper Orlovskie Novosti demanding that the information concerning him be removed from “immoral media[‘s]” website. He also demanded that a survey on readers’ attitude towards priests owning expensive property be removed from its page on social media network VKontakte. The bishop also called upon Jesus Christ “to forgive the enemies” in question.

On May 23, Orlovskie Novosti reported that Bishop Nektary owns a Land Cruiser V8 costing six million rubles (over $106,000). The car has a government license plate and is registered under the priest’s name.

According to Open Russia, the Orlov metropolitan archdiocese claimed that the SUV had been a gift that from an agricultural holding grateful for the priest’s willingness to “visit the most remote villages at any time of the year and in any weather.”

“Jesus Christ himself wore expensive clothes that were given to him by, let’s say, those people who revered him,” said the metropolitan archdiocese.